The Nagano Olympics opening ceremony finale. A wonder because:
1 – It’s Beethoven’s 9th symphony 4th movement ‘Ode to Joy’. That alone would render it wondrous.
2 – But it’s also being performed live from six locations across five continents. The technical wizardry to pull this off was quite the feat, taking the orchestra and main choral from Japan and beaming it to the other five continents then taking the return stream, leading to six different feeds that, thanks to transmission delays, are all totally out of sync with each other, so that they then put it all back together and properly in time (constantly adjusting to prevent drift) and then piping it into the stadium.
3 – But the real piece de resistance is what’s happening within the stadium. Not the dancers, but in the audience. Because look at the crowd. Standing. And signing along. In German. That’s a love of music right there, and 100% perfect for the spirit of something like the Olympics.
Wonderful.
Lynx Thoughts 